The European Timber Regulation (EUTR)

The European Timber Regulation (EUTR) is the EU’s timber regulation aimed at combatting trade with illegally harvested timber and timber products.

Illegal harvesting of timber poses a great challenge in many places in the world. Illegal harvesting may undermine efforts in the affected countries to promote sustainable forest management. This may lead to negative impacts on local and indigenous peoples, on wild fauna and flora in forests, and on valuable nature protection areas. It may also undermine climate-change adaptation efforts by the affected countries or their efforts to protect forests against flooding or protect forests with regard to other important functions. Moreover, illegal harvesting means that the affected countries miss out on considerable revenues in the form of VAT and other timber-related taxes. Finally, illegal harvesting and trade distorts competition on the timber market, leading to unfair competition for operators who comply with legislation. This is why the European Union has introduced regulations that aim at eliminating the placing of illegally harvested timber on the internal market.

The regulation affects Danish operators and forest owners who place timber on the market within the EU.

Operators and forest owners is informed via the Danish websitewww.EUTR.dkmaintained by the Environmental Protection Agency and several Associations.

Guideline to Danish forest owners

The objective of thisguidelineis to help Danish forest owners understand the requirements imposed by the EUTR so that they can take into account these requirements in their daily forest management operations.

An important step in this regard is to define what Danish legislation Danish forest owners should be aware of in connection with the EUTR.

In theguideline, the Environmental Protection Agency lists the Danish legislation Danish forest owners must be aware of in accordance with the EUTR.